What's the Motivation?
by Rai Laurel
Summary: The director for the latest miniseries "Ib" is only trying to eat lunch. He's just so hungry... (Oneshot)


**A/N: She makes a good point, if you think about it.**

* * *

"What purpose does this room serve anyway?"

The director rolled his eyes. He had been eating peacefully outside, away from the lights of the soundstage, but the actress didn't seem to care about that. She put his lunch on the ground beside the bench and spread out a map of the set in front of him.

It was the scene set for the toybox. He raised an eybrow at her.

"I mean," she said, "there is no reason for this to be here with the branch the show is following. My character would never put Ib and Garry so close to her painting."

"We can't remove it from the source material," said the director, wearily, "we will be mutilated by the reviewers."

"But it makes no sense!"

"I don't want the artists to go on strike because I didn't use the set. And I have the 'Don't Toy With Us' toy actor union to worry about. If they don't get their set amount of scenes, then THEY go on strike."

"That reminds me-" She went digging into her satchel, allowing the map to roll up and off the director's lap, and pulled out the script. He tried to sneak another bite of his sandwich, had his teeth on the bread when she shoved the script into his hands, spilling the sandwich onto the sidewalk.

"Here I've highlighted in green where the blue dolls are situated at the beginning of this nonsensical scene. Two large ones block the way, but nothing attacks Ib or Garry. But as soon as the key is found, boom, they start moving to attack, but the large blue dolls don't. They just allow Ib and Garry to escape. Why?"

"You should be asking the screenwriter this-"

"He's busy, said you'd know more about what was going on anyway."

"I don't-"

"-want to change the source material. Yeah, yeah, but what works in a game makes no sense for a minseries. Just tweak it a bit. There's no reason for Mary to push them into the box to begin with. They can dive in, instead, to get away from her. And ALL the toys can chase them. At least it makes more sense for the doorway to be clear."

"The script is already in place, and the producer-"

"Then think of it this way," the actress bent down picked up the other half of his sandwich, "I'll be the one to go on strike if you don't do anything."

She bit into the sandwich, nodded and "hmmd" appreciatively.

The director stuttered gibberish. He felt the beginnings of a growl in his stomach. The actress seemed to smile even as she devoured his lunch.

"Eve's a good friend of mine; we'll both sit out if that's what it takes. I'm sure your two main actresses are worth more than a few toys or fans."

"You can't do that; my deadline's a few weeks away, and none of you have stunt doubles or understudies who can take your places."

"NOT my problem," she said as she continued to eat.

"What does it matter anyway?" said the director. "She's only a character. She's fictional. The whole world is fictional."

"You really never were an actor, were you? My character isn't stupid. Put it this way: if the only way someone could kill you would to be to set fire to a painting of you, why put anyone who wanted to kill you right down the wall from it."

The director's stomach growled angrily as she finished off his sandwich. This was the third time this week she had done this to him.

"If I can convince the producer to let me change a bit about this branch of the storyline, will you leave me alone?"

"Of course, director," she said, sweetly. Her eyes even twinkled.

"Fine." He could still run quick to the sandwich shop before filming began again.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Director; I knew you'ld see reason, eventually."

She took her script gently from his hands, kissed him on the cheek, and began skipping back toward the sound stage. The director sighed and stood. He had a half hour to get to the sandwich shop, order, and eat before the next bit of filming began. He was just about to cross the street when someone tapped his shoulder.

"Excuse me, director?"

He looked up. The actor who played Garry was just behind him.

"Yes?" said the director.

"I have a question about the script that's been bothering me for awhile."

"What about it?"

"It's about Mary and her pallet knife. Why doesn't Garry just take it after knocking her down? It doesn't really make any sense."

The director groaned in unison with his stomach, both resigned to fate.


End file.
